Are pharmaceutical nicotine products as good a substitute for smoking as ST or e-cigarettes?

Pharmaceutical nicotine products (also known as nicotine replacement therapy or NRTs) include the nicotine patches and gums that are available without a prescription in many places. They also include a variety of inhalers, nasal sprays, topical gels, and lozenges that range in availability depending on where one resides. These products are specifically designed to help people quit smoking and all other nicotine use, by tapering down the amount of nicotine consumed. If someone wants to quit using nicotine entirely, and these products can help, then that is great. Unfortunately, the research shows that using pharmaceutical nicotine products to quit smoking results in failure more than 90% of the time. A few people use NRTs as a substitute for smoking, in much the same way they might use ST. Instead of using the products for a few weeks or months to try to quit entirely, they use them for a long time to get the nicotine without the smoke. Unfortunately, because the products are designed ...  more